What is the best jewellery to collect?

Use your head: cameo jewellery is a solid investment for jewellery collectorsCredit:
Alamy

11 November 2016 • 10:45am

Lisa Luxx

Some classic pieces of jewellery are eternally popular, both for wearing and collecting. Here are the best items of jewellery to buy at auction.

Cameo

In ancient times cameos were perceived as a way of carving magic spells. Over time, though their magic was forgotten their mystery continued to grow – particularly the mystery of the anonymous woman carved in profile who dominated cameo carvings for hundreds of years, and who remains unidentified today.

The family Augustus made them particularly popular in Ancient Rome. But the style was revived in the Renaissance period and again in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it didn’t truly hit England until Queen Victoria championed the trend, so much so that cameo jewellery was being mass-produced by the end of the 19th century.

We are most familiar with that anonymous woman’s head carved from shell onto a coral background, but cameos can be carved from stone, ivory, glass, gutta-percha, bog oak, lava and mother of pearl. Originally they depicted scenes from mythology or religious figures, but the most common motif is a portrait of a great philosopher or ruler.

Cameos are heirlooms that have carved a permanent place on the market. They have been around for so long that they show no sign of ever really disappearing into the history books. Which makes them a solid investment.

Amber

Amber, which is fossilised tree resin, is one of the earliest organic gems to be used in jewellery, in Morocco, Afghanistan, the Orient, and the Baltic countries. And as one of the first commercial products put to market, the trade of amber brought faraway countries into contact with one another.

Amber was considered to be magical – when thrown onto a fire it burnt to release an aromatic smell

It was considered to be magical – when thrown onto a fire it burnt to release an aromatic smell; when rubbed it attracted small items like a magnet does; and little insects or plants were often caught in the fossilisation of the resin. Early humans marvelled at its unusual nature. Because of the DNA caught within it as it fossilised, it has been heralded as a “window to the past”.

Copal is similar to amber, in that it is resin that hasn’t matured to the amber stage. Amber can be between 15 to 300 million years old, whereas the oldest copal is currently 33,000 years old. So you could stock up on your copal now and sit on it for a few lifetimes.

Diamond rings

In prehistoric times, cavemen braided grass and tied it around their mate’s ankles, wrists and waist to bring her spirit under his control. Over the years, we upgraded from grass to diamonds. The first ever diamond engagement ring (that we know of) was given by Archduke Maximilian to Mary of Burgundy in 1477. The diamonds were set in an M shape.

Diamonds are forever: diamond rings have been popular since the 1800sCredit:
Getty

But it wasn’t until the 1800s that the diamond industry and our obsession with diamond rings really took hold. In 1867, a diamond mine was discovered in Cape Colony and soon afterwards jewellery companies such as Tiffany’s were trademarking their own version of the classic diamond engagement ring.

By the end of the 19th century they were already being sold through mail order catalogues. Because of their mass production, it’s now understood that the real romantics trawl through antique auctions for unique one-off gems.

Art deco style

Between the 1920s and 1950s jewellery underwent innovations in style and cut thanks to the new age of machinery. The sharp new geometric and imaginative styles mimicked the rise in technology and industrialisation.

The confidence of the art deco cut echoed the new attitude of women, who now had the right to vote

During this era designs borrowed from the exotic, blending styles from Egypt, Greece, Mesoamerica, Africa, and East Asia. Meanwhile, gold came back into fashion (because it was cheaper), symmetry was key and the colours were bold.

The confidence of the cut also echoed the new attitude of women, who were now given the right to vote. They wore their independent spirit in their adornments.

However, when the Second World War began, luxurious ornate cuts began to look excessive and were paired back for more modest appeal in what can be viewed as the second part of the art deco period.